from october 2023

i had already done a rough sketch of mapleshade a few months ago, but i went back and decided to finish it since she's warrior of the week on twitter.

compared to how antpelt (my previous design for this challenge) was, with the literal essay i typed, i don't have as much to say about mapleshade's design to be honest. she's meant to be big, fluffy, and imposing.

i've always seen mapleshade as having way more orange and white than black, so that's what i did here. then i added the little touches of amber... i'm pretty happy with how her colors look!

gave her dark sclera, because i really like how it looks on her! i've seen a lot of people give it to her when she's dead, but for my design she also has it when she was alive. it's a neat way to subtly add a bit more black into her design for me.

i wanted to try doing a more dynamic pose here, and it really threw me for a loop LOL, i'm glad i got to practice stuff like this but i fussed over the proportions and such a lot. also it doesn't show her markings well enough, so i included some concept stuff i did that show them better

(also, usually markings and colors would get adjusted more between these concept designs vs the final product, but in maple's case i really liked how it turned out, so i didn't change much besides adding the eye scar)